Policies
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Overview
Explore guidelines for respectful interactions and understand our approach to maintaining constructive dialogue within Lennox & Addington County.
Frivolous and Vexatious Communications
The Corporation of the County of Lennox and Addington is committed to providing exemplary service to all members of the public and aims to address service requests and complaints equitably, comprehensively, and in a timely manner.
Frivolous, vexatious or unreasonably persistent requests or complaints consume a disproportionate amount of County time and resources and impede staff from attending to other essential issues. County staff may identify situations that meet the criteria of frivolous, vexatious or unreasonably persistent, and actions may be taken in such circumstances.
The decision to classify a subject person’s behaviour as unreasonable, or to classify a request or complaint as frivolous or vexatious, could have serious consequences for the subject person, including restricting their access to municipal services. Restrictions can include:
- Limiting the subject person’s correspondence with staff to a particular format (e.g. email only with a particular email address), time (e.g. telephone calls only at specific times and days of the week) or duration (e.g. conversations may last no longer than ten minutes);
- Limiting the subject person to a particular point of contact at the County (where possible, other staff members should be advised not to respond to the subject person, but to refer them to the point of contact);
- Limiting their interactions through Social Media with the County;
- Requiring any face-to-face interactions between the subject person and staff to take place in the presence of an appropriate witness;
- Requiring that the subject person produce full disclosure of documentation or information before staff will further investigate a complaint;
- Instructing staff not to respond to further correspondence from the subject person regarding the complaint or a substantially similar issue;
- Instructing staff not to investigate any complaints regarding an issue that has already been investigated, or which is substantially similar to an issue which has already been investigated;
- Instructing staff to severely reduce or completely cease responding to further complaints and correspondence from the subject person;
- Instructing staff to close the matter;
- Limiting or regulating the subject person’s use of municipal services e.g. community centres, access to technology systems, etc.;
- Refusing the subject person access to any municipal buildings except by appointment;
- Informing the subject person that further contact on the matter of the complaint/request will not be acknowledged or replied to;
- Pursuing legal action; and/or
- Blocking emails being received by County staff;
- Other actions as deemed appropriate.
The County of Lennox & Addington is committed to service excellence and good governance by addressing all requests and complaints equitably and efficiently while acknowledging that there may be a need to protect staff from unreasonable behaviour.
Social Media Commenting Policy
The County of Lennox and Addington’s social media channels are meant to connect the public to our programs, services and upcoming events. To keep conversations meaningful and relevant, we encourage everyone to stay on topic.
The County supports an inclusive, diverse, equitable, and respectful work environment, free of discrimination and harassment. County employees moderate our social media sites and their contents. Any conduct that is discriminatory or harassing will be removed, and the user may be banned from future use of County channels.
To ensure a respectful and positive online environment, there are times when the County may limit or disable commenting and remove comments or tags.
By joining discussions on the County of Lennox and Addington’s social media pages, you agree to follow these ground rules. We want to foster a respectful and engaging space, so we kindly ask that you avoid posting or sharing content that:
- Misrepresents your identity or the origin of the content, or falsely implies affiliation with a person, organization or entity;
- Contains material that you do not have the rights to share, or that could create legal liability under intellectual property laws;
- May be harmful, offensive, or inappropriate, including but not limited to abusive, misleading, obscene, or inflammatory remarks, or comments that could encourage hatred, discrimination, or harm against individuals or groups based on protected grounds under the Ontario Human Rights Code;
- Is unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional material, “junk mail,” “spam,” “chain letter,” “pyramid scheme,” or any other form of solicitation (commercial or otherwise);
- Violates confidentiality or privacy by sharing personal data about others or encourages others to do so;
- Violates any laws, regulations or encourages unlawful activities.
The County of Lennox and Addington cooperates with law enforcement officials and complies with any court order with respect to any claim or investigation due to any content posted. Such content and information regarding your identity as well as other relevant information will be provided to law enforcement.
